


Invisible Crown

by mell0bee



Series: The Invisible Crown Universe [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: #letmarcoeaticecream2k18, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Alternate Universe - Theater AU, Borderline High School Musical AU, Bullying, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, In Which The Author Procrastinates A Lot, Musical References, Nerd Marco Diaz, Popular Star Butterfly, Popularity, SO MUCH FLUFF, Star is secretly a theater nerd, i have more chapters written but im lazy and dont want to post them here, mostly fluff tho, theres more characters but i forget, theyre 15 in this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-17 02:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14178354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mell0bee/pseuds/mell0bee
Summary: Star the popular girl wants two things: 1) get the lead role in the school play and 2) be noticed by her crush Marco, a geek. School, the play, and the social hierarchy are already hard enough to juggle, but she'll stop at nothing to achieve her goals, even if she realizes that maybe those two things are not all that she wants.aka a twisting tropes AU!





	1. prelude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> September 2nd, 9th grade.
> 
> At a sleepover, Janna and Star fantasize about high school.

"When we grow up, what do you think will be different?" Janna asked sleepily.

"Don't know," Star murmured. The sky was blanketed in inky blackness, dotted with tiny lights that could barely be seen from out of Star's bedroom window. The two of them were still up at one in the morning, and the early September cold caused them to cuddle into their blankets- Star on the bed, Janna on the floor. Ponyhead, always one to fall asleep quickly, was completely knocked out. "Hopefully nothing," she added. "I mean, it's not really growing up, Janna. Just high school. What could be different?"

"Everything," Janna said.

"Like what?"

"Maybe we'll climb up to the top." Janna turned over and faced Star, a smug look on her face. "You know, rule the school. You already are," she teased.

Star giggled. "Barely. Only because I'm dating Tom now."

"No, no, not just because you're dating Tom now," Janna pointed out. "You're a natural."

"Really?" Star asked, and fell silent for a minute. "That would be nice, but- no, I think I never could change."

"I don't think so. To be honest, I wouldn't be so surprised if you walked around that high school with an invisible crown on your head, princess," Janna whispered.

"Hey, Janna," Star murmured, letting out a yawn. "If I did, is that such a bad thing?"

Janna closed her eyes and thought for a second. "Well," she said finally, "it all depends on how you wear it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELCOME TO MY AU!! I'm importing this from Wattpad but I don't actually know how the import feature works so I'm doin' it the old-fashioned way. I have like 14 chapters already written so it might take me a little while to post them all on here. Once they're all posted, updates will be every other Friday-ish. YAAAY! 
> 
> Don't worry, this fic gets waaay better a few chapters in. I wrote most of this a long time ago, so bear with me here.


	2. Perfectly Normal Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> November 17th, 10th grade.  
> Star is late for science class.

Star Butterfly was a perfectly normal teenager.

Despite how much she dreamed of it, magic wasn't real. Nothing to whisk her away from the dangers of high school.

"I probably failed that test," Star told her best friend Ponyhead as she walked out of Mrs. Skullnick's math class. "There is no chance on Earth I got number four right."

She watched the kids she passed in the hallways. Scowling, frowning, lonely, acne-ridden faces greeted her, one after the other. Losers, a voice at the back of her head- not her own, but vaguely familiar- said. Not worth your time.

Star had it easy compared to most kids. She had good looks and plenty of friends. People liked her. Nobody bothered her. She was popular.

And the losers? The losers were stuck living off their scraps in the hopes of survival.

It was a perfectly normal Tuesday- kids still seemed like zombies from Monday, Skullnick had given a nearly impossible test - at least it wasn't a pop quiz this time! - and someone had sabotaged the coffee in the teacher's lounge, causing Principal Skeeves to give a very passionate speech over the intercom about how too much milk completely ruins the coffee. Nothing unusual there.

Ponyhead nodded in agreement, the two walking side by side in the green-tiled hallway designated for sophomores. Posters advertising auditions for their school's play Tangled were nearly everywhere. Whoever was told to put them up must have been given way too many of them. "Skullzie's tests are hardly fair, gurl." Ponyhead reassured her. "It's like she actually wants us to fail." Her pink hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, tied with ribbon, which she swished around as she walked.

"I know, right?" Star agreed. Amongst the sea of sad faces, she noticed a familiar one. "Hey, Brittney!"

"Hey, Brittney, hey, Sabrina!" Star and Ponyhead waved to them as they passed. Brittney smiled back, then continued to be peeved about something or other as per usual. Sabrina's face seemed to be permanently plastered with a look of terror. Something must have gone terribly wrong in science class. Fantastic. They'd get to face the science teacher's wrath and hear Brittney rant about it during lunch hour.

The two continued walking, casually chatting about their after-school plans and the fashion magazine that Ponyhead was supposed to receive very soon. Suddenly, Star tensed up and spoke, switching the subject. "Ugh, my science stuff is still in my locker! I'm such an idiot!"

"Star, chill! Go to your locker!"

"Bye, Pony!" Star called as she rushed over to her locker, punching in the combination as fast as humanly possible. She pulled out her books and slammed it shut. Her science class was just across the hall and one classroom to the left of her locker. The door slammed shut just as she reached it. Star was forced to awkwardly attempt to open the door while carrying a textbook and a binder in her hands. Finally, she grasped the doorknob, turned it, and staggered into the classroom.

She was greeted by the same, bland classroom and a familiar (but still highly unwelcome) face. "Late as per usual, Miss Butterfly?" Toffee asked, standing in front of the class. Star almost shook her head 'no', realized how stupid that was, because yeah, she was late, and instead just sighed and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "Take a seat, then. Hurry up." His words were polite enough but the way he said them with malice made Star shiver. She huffed and sat down in her assigned seat. Ugh. Toffee was so annoying.

Toffee turned to the board and began his lesson. "So if the chicken does, in fact, lay eggs, we can conclude that its chromosomes do indeed contain the XY combination." Star sighed and rested her head on her hand. Why call it honors when you were just going to go over things you learned last year?

She had no close friends in this class, unfortunately. It wasn't as if she had no friends altogether- she could easily talk to a few acquaintances sitting around her- but it wasn't worth the effort to have a pointless conversation. She felt oddly distant with no friends around her, and less intimidating. So she passed the time by impatiently tapping her pencil.

And staring at Marco Diaz, the cute boy who sat in front of her. Star felt very very stupid for liking him. It was dumb, but the crush stayed and wouldn't go away. The kid was a genius, anyway, scoring all A's. That is no easy feat. And from what she'd managed to get out of Janna, he was way nice, too. She remembered her exact words: "Oh, yeah, Marco? He's nice. The geek lets everyone walk over him. Why do you ask?" Star remembered having to awkwardly murmur a "No, no reason," after that.

Something in her head nagged her. You can't like him, it said. He's a geek. You can't talk to him. There's no way Brittney or Sabrina or Ponyhead will be happy about that.

Star shook her head. It's just a crush. It's not hurting anyone, she told the voice.

Her stomach growled. One more period until lunch. She began to drift off a little, daydreaming about a girl who lived in a castle. There was no school, no grades, no friends to worry about. Just a princess in a castle. Actually, that got Star thinking about the local school play. Posters were everywhere. You couldn't walk two feet without seeing one. Based on how horrendous the play was last year, Star could tell the drama teacher was desperate for students to audition this time. (They had done Annie. Star was a background orphan. She seriously thought none of the sophomores deserved a lead, they were that bad.) Audition she would. She grinned stupidly just thinking about it. Her whole life, she had been looking forward to sophomore year just so she could try out for a lead in the play. The stage and the spotlight called for her. That lead role was hers.

"Butterfly!"

Star snapped out of her daydream. "Huh? What?"

A few kids in the class laughed. "What was the answer to my question, Miss Butterfly?" Toffee asked.

Star blinked. She had to think fast. "Uh, 42?"

"This is not math class," Toffee said, walking towards her desk, "This is science class. Where not every answer is a number." The classes' giggles were stifled, drowned out by Toffee's threatening voice. Murmurs and whispers replaced them. Star leaned to the right a little to peek over at the desk in front of her, embarrassed. Was Marco laughing, too?

"Now, Mr. Diaz," Toffee questioned, his voice cool and calm despite the slight uproar in the class, "If Bertha and Martin have a child, what is the percentage chance that their child will have a blue head?"

That question made no sense. Blue head? Star decided that even if she had been paying attention, she wouldn't have gotten the right answer anyways. Yet Marco knew the answer. "Twenty-five percent chance, sir. Blue heads are a recessive gene."

Star smiled internally. She had to keep a straight face, yet there went the butterflies in her stomach again. It was the worst feeling in the world, and she loved it. Too bad she couldn't act upon her feelings.

The lesson that day, Star felt, was pretty understandable. Long and unnecessary, but understandable. She paid half-attention throughout the whole class, doing her English homework underneath her desk when she finished the worksheet handed out early.

"Now, class," Toffee began, "there will be a quiz next Wednesday on all of this." (The entire class collectively groaned.) "Be sure to bring your notes home in order to study, and don't forget extra credit due Friday-" the teacher droned on. The clock's second hand ticked slowly down to the thirty-second mark, and then, finally, RING RING!

Star flung her backpack over her shoulder and clung her books to her chest tightly as she pushed her way through the mob of students trying to get out. She didn't even bother with heading to her locker to put away her binders - her lunch, she knew, was waiting for her in the cafeteria.

And Janna, apparently, was waiting for her in the hallway. At least, so she discovered while bumping into her.


	3. The Dreaded Lunch Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE FORMATTED TEXT. THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. 
> 
> i have like four hours of stage crew today and yet here I am posting this instead of doing my homework  
> i swear the rest of the chapters will come soon (probably)

Star's back crashed into the wall from the collision. She stepped away immediately, rubbing her back. "Janna!" she warned, "You've got to stop sneaking up on me like that!"

Janna shrugged. "It's what I do best." She seemed mostly unharmed, and luckily Star' books were all still in her arms.

"That and be annoying," Star teased as she began walking towards the lunchroom with Janna at her side, guided by the motion of the crowd of hungry teenagers that surrounded them.

"Love ya too," Janna grinned.

"What are you doing outside of science anyway?" Star asked. "Didn't you have English? Isn't that halfway across the school?"

"I asked to go to the bathroom five minutes before class ended. No biggie. There's a sub, by the way. He didn't know any better. In fact, the whole class was goofing off and he had no clue." Janna laughed a little. "Ah, substitutes."

"Is it the same sub from the Cucumber Incident? He was the poster child of clueless subs."

"Pssh, no, couldn't be..." Janna put two fingers on her chin. "Actually... yeah, yeah! I think it was."

"That was one of your greatest feats ever."

"I know, right?!" Janna grinned. "You're gonna have a ton of fun in English, princess."

Star's grip on her books tightened. "Not the whole 'princess' routine again," she mumbled.

"What? You totally are a princess."

"Am not."

"Are too. Popular, makeup, and voted most likely to get the lead in the freshman/sophomore play..."

"Says who?"

"Says literally everyone,  _princess."_

"I really hate you right now." Star  _humphed_  and turned her head away from Janna.

"Aww, come on!"

Star hesitated a little when she saw Ponyhead and the rest of her friends come in from the right. The two hallways met and led into the cafeteria. "Seeya,  Janna-Banana!" Star called, using the nickname she had come up with for her friend in fourth grade.

"Bye, princess," Janna replied, but Star was already out of earshot. Almost every day that Janna left class early so she could see Star, their conversation was cut short. Star had better things to do. Janna sighed and started scanning the crowd for her own friends. It wasn't her fault she wasn't popular.

\----

Ponyhead nearly jumped on Star when she saw her. "How did science go?" she asked, her voice sing-songy. "Brittney told me Toff-Toff nearly exploded on her because she talked back to him. Isn't that right, Miss Wong?" Ponyhead nudged Brittney in the shoulder and laughed, which made Brittney roll her eyes.

"Just the usual," Star shrugged. "DNA, RNA, 'is-this-class-over-yet'-NA, I didn't really pay attention." The three of them finally stepped into the lunchroom- Star guessed Sabrina, who normally joined them, had to stay late after class or something- and sat down at their usual table. Star gestured towards the lunch line, four dozen or so teenagers lined up waiting for their lunch. "We got here too late."

Brittney scoffed. "There's no way I'm getting on that line." She rested her head on the table in defeat.

"I-I'll get your lunch for you, no problem-o!" Star offered. She stood up as quickly as possible, not wanting to show her friends how much of an inconvenience this was for her. She had homework that needed to be done before her next class. But she sucked in her breath and took her spot on the really long lunch line, grabbing a red plastic lunch tray on her way.

For a minute, she was just left alone with her thoughts.

But it couldn't be a perfectly normal Tuesday without some trouble, right?

"HELLO." A scratchy voice behind her blurted.

_Of course._

Star turned around slowly. "Hi, Ludo," she said unenthusiastically.

"You'll never guess what I did this time!" He gave her an evil smile and laughed.

"You're still not the least bit intimidating," she informed him. It seemed to go over his head, literally. Ludo was really short, so short that Star had to bend down to talk to him.

_"Heheheh_! I think this is my most diabolical plan yet!"

"You've 'pranked' me two times this year!" Star exclaimed, over-dramatizing the air quotes. "Both were terrible."

"But this one beats them both!" Star didn't understand why Ludo was like this to her. Ever since her freshman year, he had made it his goal to bug her. Why her? She would never understand.

"I'm sure it does," she deadpanned. "I mean, it's pretty hard to beat mailing me a box full of glitter.  _Boy,_ that one sure was traumatizing." She dropped the act. "How did you even get my address?!" 

It was as if he didn't even hear her. "I put pictures of puppies all over your locker!" The boy blurted and spun around with glee. 

Star blinked. "Really?"

"Really!" Ludo grinned, clearly proud of himself. "Isn't that terrible?"

"Uh-huh." Star said slowly. 

"But, but but but, that's not all, Miss Butterfly! You won't believe it!"

Star crossed her arms. "Try me."

"Oh, wouldn't  _you_ like to know!" He threw his arms up in the air and began laughing diabolically. "But you'll never find out! Because I-"

Star nodded. "Yes, that's why I asked."

"Oh. Well, I attached them with  _glue_ instead of tape! So now it'll take  _forever_ to get them off! Muahahaha!"

Star couldn't help but notice someone get on line behind Ludo.  _Marco._ Why did he always seem to be around when she got herself into potentially embarrassing situations? Star caught herself thinking back to last period. Did he think she was stupid because she wasn't paying attention?

"...And then the school! And then the world! And then the universe! And then-! Actually, the universe should do it. Hey Star, are you listening?" Ludo said, his voice annoyed at the fact that he even had to ask her.

"Mhmm..." She turned around and put her tray on the counter for the lunch lady to fill, trying to turn her thoughts away from her crush. The woman slopped a heaping of cafeteria food onto Star's- no,  _Brittney's-_  tray, and she muttered her thanks, quickly walking out of there before Ludo said anything else or she did something to embarrass herself.

She slammed the red tray down in front of Brittney's face, the cafeteria food hopping up from the impact. "One lunch for you!" Before Brittney could react, she sat down in her own plastic chair and unzipped her lunchbox.

"Thanks, loser," Brittney said, not looking up from her phone. "I think some boy was looking for you."

"Ooooh!" Star didn't even notice that Ponyhead was sitting to her right until she spoke up. "Who was it?" Brittney shrugged. "Yo, where's Sabrina?"

"Gotchu, girl. Brittney, can I borrow your eyeliner?" Star thought she heard a muffled "sure", but by then she has completely muted the two of them in her mind, scribbling down answers to the worksheet as quickly as possible and taking a bite of her sandwich once in awhile. The pencil's tip broke just as she finished the page. She flipped it over just to check- of course there was a back! Just her luck! She quickly got out a new pencil and finished the worksheet.

When she finally looked up, Star noticed that Pony and Brittney were gone. So was Brittney's makeup bag. She packed up her lunch, not really caring that she had left a bag of chips uneaten. The two of them did this often, or it would be Star and Ponyhead to go into the bathroom to put on makeup- Pony had an obsession with the stuff. Normally Sabrina would be left behind, but Sabrina was sick. Or she stayed after class. Or something that excused her from coming to lunch.

Leaving Star with her bag of seventy-five percent air and twenty-five percent potato chips. 


End file.
